StreetSummit

The recent, well-attended LA StreetSummit was proof enough that we Angelenos—from East Los Angeles to Long Beach, school age to elderly, bicycling to median gardening—have a shared future in redeemed streets. But wait a second…we already own these streets! Now is the time to ask them to serve us better.

Living Streets has been scheming ways to ‘flip’ our city’s existing vasphalt hardscapes for better use: serving people instead of cars. We are eager to wield the power of demonstration by paintcan and paintbrush, which New York City’s Transportation Department Commissioner touted during her recent visit to Los Angeles. Even elected officials and City Planning Department staff who heard Sadik-Khan’s talks are excited to see some similar, LA projects sped towards implementation!

Doing something is what we’re about, and as Sadik-Khan’s crew at NYCDOT and our friends up at San Francisco’s Pavement to Parks have shown, it’s hard to quarrel with the quality of life improvements these simple, low-cost pilot projects have stacked up. The places they create so easily trump what many figure as the imperative of reserving on-street speeding and parking space for cars. We know that once people live in the difference between our current, car-accommodating streets and ones designed for them, they won’t want to go back!

We’d like to work together to find sites for at least one 6-month pilot project before Street Summit 2011.

Join us to plan how and where we can pool our resources to make this happen!